Sindhu, Satwik-Chirag get byes in first round of BWF World Championships

Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty received a first-round bye in the draw of the BWF World Badminton Championships 2023, here on Thursday. This year the BWF World Championships will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark from 21 to 27 August.

At the same time, Sindhu, who won the women’s singles world title in the year 2019, got a difficult draw. She could face Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand and top seed Ahn Se Young of Korea. All of these are placed in the upper half of the draw. Sindhu is the only Indian player challenging in women’s singles. The defending World Championships bronze-medallist pair of Satwik and Chirag have been in fine form as the pair shot up to a career-best second spot in the world rankings last week after winning the Korea Open.

Also leading the Indian challenge in the men’s singles will be the in-form HS Prannoy, who has been seeded second for the event. He will face Finland’s Kel Koljonen in the first round. In men’s singles, Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth will take on Georges Julien Paul of Mauritius and Kenta Nishimoto of Japan respectively in the first round.

Prannoy is the most consistent Indian player in the last 12 months. And right now his world ranking is ninth. He won the Malaysia Masters in May and finished runner-up at the Australian Open last week. India has fielded two pairs in women’s doubles. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have got a bye in the first round, while Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam will take on the Dutch pair of Deborah Jilli and Cheryl Seenen.

Let us tell you that in men’s singles, 64 players while in women’s singles, 48 ​​players will present the challenge. 46-46 pairs will participate in three doubles events. The top 16 players have been seeded in the latest world rankings in all five categories. Four Indians will be contesting in the singles category while six Indian pairs are contesting in the doubles category in the 28th edition of the tournament.

Let us tell you that PV Sindhu is the only Indian to win the World Championship so far. He won the title in 2019. He has also won two silver and two bronze medals in this tournament. Besides Sindhu, former Olympic medalist Saina Nehwal also won a silver in 2015 and a bronze in 2017 at the World Championships. Former world number one player Srikanth also won a silver medal in 2021. Among other Indians, Lakshya Sen, B Sai Praneeth and the pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta have also won bronze medals at the World Championships. India has so far won 13 medals in the BWF World Championships.

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